Waiting for the Icelandic summer-spawning herring

Production of Atlanto-Scandian herring at HB Grandi’s Vopnafjördur factory came to an end last Thursday as the fish landed by Lundey NS was finished. There is now a break of a few weeks before production of Icelandic summer-spawning herring begin.

The factory has been able to maintain practically continuous production this summer since the first mackerel were landed there on the 2nd of July. Landings have totalled 18,800 tonnes of mackerel for production, as well as 5300 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring this season. The first herring catches were taken as by-catch with mackerel, until the season was finished on clean Atlanto-Scandian herring caught in the Nordfjördur Deeps.

According to Magnús Róbertsson, production manager at HB Grandi’s Vopnafjördur plant, fish production has gone well this summer. To begin with, the mackerel were filleted, processed as H&G, or wholefrozen, but by the end of the season most of it has been wholefrozen. All herring landings were processed as butterfly fillets.

‘We’ve started the cleaning process and clearing up after the season, and then we’ll have to wait until the Icelandic summer-spawning herring season starts. If that goes as in the last few years, it should be around the middle of October,’ Magnús Róbertsson said.